Official documents: Huawei’s illegal business with Iran

Last month, the arrest of Huawei’s CFO in Canada hit high waves. The founder’s daughter was alleged by the United States on charges that the Chinese giant was cheating on the global banking system by attempting to cover up some of Iran’s business. This is an illegal practice in the US. So far, the allegations seemed to be just hot air, but now the documents that prove Huawei’s illegal dealings with Iran come to light.

The case against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou revolves around the relationship Huawei has entered into with two small businesses. One is a telecom equipment provider based in Tehran, Skycom Tech Co Ltd, the other one, Canicula, has its headquarters in Mauritius. According to Meng, the two companies are completely independent of Huawei, so they can freely conduct transactions in Iran. However, documents that have now surfaced show that the Chinese giant has actually controlled the actions of both companies, experts say.

The documents discovered by Reuters news agency show that Skycom had hired a senior Huawei manager to head the Iranian company. In addition, the names of three persons of Chinese nationality are referred to, which are connected to corresponding bank accounts of Huawei and Skycom in Iran.

The data shows that Skycom was sold to Canicula in 2007, which held the Skycom shares for about ten years. Skycom was then voluntarily liquidated in 2017 so that Canicula was able to do business in Syria on behalf of Huawei and thus violated US law.

According to officials in the United States, Huawei controlled Skycom to sell telecommunications equipment to Iran and managed to get large amounts of money out of the country. Huawei is said to have violated US sanctions against Iran. An official reaction from Huawei is still pending.

Do the new documents in your eyes shed another light on the complicated relationship between the US and Huawei?